A series of explorations into a new paradigm in coaching (or a re-emergence of what we always knew?)
By Dr. Suzanne Henwood
When was the last time in your coaching practice you learned something that blew your model of the world wide open? That changed what you do and how you do it, indeed changed what you even think is or is possible?
mBraining did that for me. In February 2013 I sat in my first mBIT Coach Certification and it was as if a stick of dynamite had blown away my sense of who I was, making me realise that 20 years of personal development had only led to me create different barriers and boundaries to my identity. In an instant, mBraining shattered those boundaries and opened up opportunities for myself, my professional life, my coaching, my clients and my world. And of course, now I can never go back to not knowing what I know, nor would I ever want to. I love how mBIT has transformed my world and transforms the world of those I coach and train.
So what is mBraining?
mBraining is a beautiful blend of the very latest applied neuroscience and ancient wisdom. Together, they show that we have at least three brains, or centres of intelligence and when we align them and enable them to work at their very highest expression, a profoundly transformational inner wisdom emerges.
In fact, it is not mBraining that has shown we have multiple brains, this has been demonstrated by numerous other medical and scientific experts over the years. Michael Gershon in the field of neuro-gastroenterology and Andrew Armour in neuro-cardiology are two important names to start googling if you want to explore the background more. Peter Levine (healing trauma) and Antonio Damasio (embodied cognition) and Stephen Porges (polyvagal theory) three more big names in related fields. But I am not here to give you a thorough history, you can read that for yourself elsewhere. what we do know is that science has developed a list of criteria that must be met to call a ‘complex, adaptive, neural network’ a brain. Just a bunch of neurones is not enough. So I mustn’t get over excited and over claim. We didn’t discover the multiple brains, we have known about them for thousands of years and in recent times have used imaging and science advancement to prove it.
What mBIT has contributed is bringing those diverse silos of knowledge together to ask, if this is all present in one body … so what? And what does this mean for coaching?
So, Grant Soosalu and Marvin Oka spent five years reviewing the existing literature and through behavioural modelling brought it together to create the suite of tools and techniques that we call mBIT (multiple Brain Integration Techniques). mBraining is the process of using the multiple brains.
Since it’s launch in 2012 the field has grown exponentially, both in terms of awareness and in terms of the number of coaches and trainers globally, but also in terms of further knowledge and applications. Beyond the basic Coach Certification (a transformational four day course), we now also offer learning opportunities in Leadership, Innergetics (deep connection to gut), embodied wisdom, stress, health care, massage and education – to name a few.
And more is being developed including an integrative sales approach, and a psychometric tool to identify which brains are being used, in which order in Decision Making.
So, this new field is vibrant, exciting and developing and opening up a new paradigm of coaching. And over the next 4 blogs we will explore more about the detail behind this new field.